DIY: How to Choose Electric Guitar Strings (.010s)

Stop taking guitar strings for granted! Nikos Arvantis opens the book on the wildly varied world of guitar strings, the cheapest, fastest way to change your tone and improve an instrument’s playability.

Round or hexagonal core? Flatwounds or roundwounds? Maybe a hybrid of both? Nickel, steel, high-carbon, coated, or nickel-plated strings? Looking for biting T-style leads or mellow darker jazz box sounds? Using various D’Addario .010-gauge sets, a Strat and a Fender Deluxe, Nikos displays how they sound. Check out the tone of high-carbon steel-core pure nickel wrap wire, high-carbon steel-core stainless steel flattened ribbon wire, high-carbon steel-core stainless steel wrap wire, NY steel-core nickel-plated wrap wire, NY steel-core phosphor-bronze wrap with a XS coating, pure-nickel roundwounds, extra-light chromes, bright toned half-wounds, NYXLs, nickel-plated roundwounds, light-gauge pure nickels, regular-light-gauge half-wounds, XS nickel-plated steels, pure nickel regular lights, half-wound regular lights, and regular nickel-plated steels. Nikos says, “Using different strings with the exact same setup will absolutely alter your tone, but the biggest and most noticeable difference will be how the guitar feels in your hands. At the end of day, selection of strings is a matter of personal taste and your decisions should be made after trying as many as you can to see what helps you express yourself better. Also, remember that many experienced players have changed their strings and gauges throughout their life, so keep in mind that what your ear finds pleasing will evolve over years of musical experiences. The most important thing to remember is that you should ultimately trust your hands and ears to make the choice that is best for you.”

*© Copyright Gearhead Communications LLC, 2022*

#guitar #diy #guitarstrings

[grahamnunn]

I like different strings on different guitars. I have a 60s style Strat and prefer pure nickel, round wound but on my more modern HSS, prefer NYXL. Also, I use Half round strings on a Casino with a Bigsby as I was playing that in a 60s band and it felt lovely. I keep a string change diary and experiment a lot!

[Purusam]

NYXL are my fav strings, the best I've ever used so far.

[rickeybecker]

Well done video. Hearing these all side by side with the only the strings as a variable really helps me figure out the differences. Some have very simulator sounds while other are very noticeable. Thank you for this video!!

[DolemiteSammich]

100% agree all that matters is how the strings feel in your hands

[valuedhumanoid]

As a 40 year veteran of the guitar, you can imagine how many strings I have tried. I picked up a pack of the D'Addario NYXL 9 set and they're the best strings I have ever found. Not only do they sound fantastic and feel like butter on your fingertips, they last forever. I don't know what kind of voodoo they use to make them, I think they coat them with unicorn tears or something like that, but they are the only strings I will buy now. And they're just a few bucks more than a set of EB Slinky's

[thefilthygringo]

I myself love and have always used Ernie ball regular slinky for years and love them over any other string. I’m thinking of trying regular slinky cobalt (10’s). In my 30 years I’ve tried a lot but I have just loved the sound and feel of Ernie ball regular slinky strings

[Itsjoemaddock]

D’addario Pure Nickel wins out for me. Way more lively, easier to intonate than other pure nickel sets. Feel is awesome too. Kind of underrated in my opinion.

[Strat]

Best strings I ever tried on a Strat was the Thomastic-Infeld Blues Sliders. Something about that thread wrap on the low strings. Unfortunately my sweat destroys strings quick, and at $20 a set, only used them for special occasions

[pfsmith]

The problem with shoot-outs like these is that the feel of the strings changes how you play. You hold the pick differently. You dig in a little differently. There's too many other variables to tell differences just from listening. You really have to try them yourself.

[deadlift]

Pure Nickel and NYXL sound best for my taste

[jamesk]

Great video and playing. Well crafted demos to show the differences.

I love the sound of those Half Rounds with that Fender/Fender.

I've been using the NYXL 10-59 (7 string) on an old Schecter though a Boogie F-50 mostly playing country/country rock for the past year or so.

I enjoy the NYXL attack and consistency between pickups and gain levels, especially with my underwhelming neck single-coil. Readily available 7 string sets makes life easy as well.

[spawnthecrazy]

Very unbiased, yes, also only uses D'addarios, fishy...

[alexcorona]

I got a guitar with a stripped truss rod and to adjust the neck I swap gauges 😅

[rareform]

Old school since 1968 Slinkys 9, s 10, s !

[Slavetskiy]

White X more brite and overtones for me

[GenericSpace]

D'Addario all the way. If you look at a pack of Ernie Ball compared to D'Addario - Ernie Ball will always have corrosion on their strings because humidity is always going to get to them unless you get an extremely fresh set right off the presses.
D'Addario seals their strings so they're always fresh and never corroded.

As for gauges; I prefer EXL116's on my Strat with Lace Sensor Gold pickups and EXL110's on my Epiphone ET290 Crestwood and Custom Les Paul.
I would put heavier strings on the Crestwood but those guitars have a thin body so the neck will "lift up" is you try putting anything heavier than 46-10's on it.
Don't really play anything but my Strat though so that's why I don't really care that there's 10's on anything else lol.

[jean-pierrerobert]

Regular Slinky, and I'm good to go.

[Online_ToughGuy]

Holy shit was not expecting him to play Slint

[boshi]

You've got pretty much all your labels wrong. Text descriptions on the screen don't match the package, e.g. D'Addario Electric XS are NOT phosphor bronze, round wound strings are marked as flat wound, semi-flat as round wound, etc.

[DMSProduktions]

You keep saying D'addario wrong vre!